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HARLES BIRD, son of a wealthy Delaware land holder, educated with a view to practising medicine; soldier from second lieutenant to colonel in the United States volunteer army in the Civil war, taking part in some sixteen battles, receiving two severe wounds, and remaining on active duty for over a year with an open wound entirely through the body, and commanding a brigade before he was twenty-six years old; promoted from second lieutenant to brigadier-general in the regular service; from lieutenant-colonel to brigadier-general of volunteers in the Spanish-American and Philippine wars; was born at Wilmington, Newcastle county, Delaware, June 17, 1838.

His ancestors were of Welsh descent, and sailing from Wales in 1701 landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in 1702 settled in Delaware on land known as Welsh tract, granted to William Davies and two others by William Penn. His father was James Thomas Bird, a leading agriculturist in Delaware residing in Wilmington. His landed estate included a part of the original Welsh tract which came to him through alliance by marriage with the Davies family and has been owned by six generations of the Bird family and which is now the property of General Bird. His mother, Elizabeth Clark, died when he was an infant. He attended Newark academy, Delaware, and schools at Mount Holly and Lawrenceville, New Jersey, and was about to enter the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania when the Civil war broke out. He served in the 1st and 2d Delaware volunteers as lieutenant and captain; in the 9th Delaware volunteers as lieutenant-colonel; in the 1st United States Veteran regiment, Hancock's Corps, as lieutenant-colonel and colonel, 1861-65. He was brevetted lieutenant and captain "for gallant and meritorious service" at Fredericksburg; major, for Spottsylvania; lieutenant-colonel, for Petersburg. In the regular army he served in the 14th and 23d United States infantry as second and first lieutenant in the quartermaster's department; and from lieutenant-colonel in the quartermaster's department to brigadier-